Just a question......that's always confised me coming from the opening ceremony.....why if we call our country Australia when we're introduced as something like L'Australie in french and something different in chinese?.. Follows the same in places like Italy....we all say Florence but the Italian name is Firenze (or something similar)...surely we should call each place by the name that the locals/natives use.....Begique or Belgium?.....and why are we shown endless swimming and never see but a touch of the different sports tripple jump/polevault/Judo/wrestling/taekwondo.........rant & questions over

DroothR wrote:I never understood it either. I just assume it's the arrogance of each culture having to assign their OWN name to things (which is pretty disrespectful in my mind).

Maybe it has something to do with countries wanting to make it easier for people to remember or pronounce their country/city names - Bankgkok's full name is 'Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit' no way I'd be able to remember that.

Then again, maybe it has something to do with cultures wanting to preserve their cultural identities - see the name changes in India - or maybe it has something to do with how certain phrases or letter combinations are treated in certain countries, i.e. maybe pronounced differently or have no equivalent.

As for why Australian TV doesn't cover other sports like judo etc. It has do with the size of our telecast crew (very small when compared with the heavy hitters like NBC), our chances of getting medals and the ratings.

The reffing in men's international basketball is definitely random at best. I noticed that the European refs tend to turn a blind eye to the obvious push and shove stuff, but blow the whistle at the soccer-style flops (I'm talking about you Manu). I remember a ref calling "offensive goal tending" after an alley-oop dunk a couple comps back.